Weigh In #24

It is cold here in SE Michigan. What to wear on weigh in day that is warm but not heavy on the scales? I weighed three pairs of pants before deciding what to wear. Silly? Yes, but I wanted to be sure to hit a number on the scales today. Actually the numeric goal isn't my weight, but pounds lost.

I dressed, got into my parka and off I went to good news. My goal was to have a total of 40 pounds lost. I exceeded that, I am at 41.8 pounds gone!

I might even wear jeans and a sweater next week and accept that if the WW scales stay the same or even are up a few ounces, it might be the weight of clothing. The pants I wore today are sloppy big and uncomfortable because of that. What a nice complaint.

I found this online and while not sure of its accuracy, I'm willing to believe it is close:
33 pounds = a cinder block
36 pounds = a mid-size microwave
40 pounds = a 5-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg

 Onward and downward!

23rd Week

Today was good news!  This is me in my udderly wonderful banana tutu, doing the happy dance!

I am down 2.4 pounds from last week! After two sluggish weigh ins, what might have made the difference? Better tracking and drinking more water might have done it. I know that plateaus can be reached no matter how "good" you are, and that water retention on a weigh in morning or perhaps the other reason we visit bathrooms can affect the reading on our scales. Whatever the reason, doing a better job of tracking and drinking water certainly doesn't hurt anyone.

I am .3 pounds away from a total of 40 pounds lost! Why, oh why, wouldn't they let me take my jeans off at the scale?  


Onward and downward, with plenty of water.

22nd Weigh In, slowing down...

I'm down .3 this week for a total of 37.3.

I am relieved that I didn't have a gain or remain the same, and aggravated at myself even though I know that isn't positive. I stayed out of the Halloween candy and did a better job of tracking this past week, but I know I can do better. My biggest struggle right now isn't what I eat, but knowing that I need to incorporate exercise and not really wanting to do this.

I wake up, dress, come downstairs and have breakfast and additional cups of coffee while checking in with my online friends (2 small message boards), skim Facebook, check emails and do an online Sudoku puzzle. Other than necessary household chores and errands, my activity is creative, not physical. I knit. I do paper crafts. I read and write. At the end of the day, as I wind down for bed, I skim Pinterest and play Words With Friends.

I enjoy every minute of my day. I am not bored. I do need to set a schedule and move this body around more than getting up from my chair for another cup of coffee or glass of water.

Onward, forward and downward.....

21st Weigh In Uh-oh....Halloween

I still had a loss, but I've been dancing with the devil and need to stop.

I'm not talking about an all or nothing attitude, or that occasionally indulgences are bad. Heck, nothing on WW is bad. We just need to know the points, make a choice and write it if we bite it. So what tune have I been dancing to with the devil?  One that tells me I am too busy to track right now, that I'll enter it later.

I have a computer where I do most of my work and play in comfortable surroundings. I have an iPad. I have an iPhone. All have WW e-tools on them. There is no excuse for me not to track. Favorite foods and even meals are listed separately. I don't even have to type their names, just click and drag.

The other melody is something about Halloween candy. Mostly I can tune that out, but I recently made these Ghiradelli candy holders and have mindlessly eaten some of the leftovers that weren't needed for the project.

Link to how they were done is HERE on my other blog

A neighbor's child sold candy for a school fundraiser. While the candy isn't bad in quality, the fund raiser has greatly diminished in profit for the school since my own kids were this age. I understand supplies and manufacturing costs have risen, but three boxes of candy equalled 45 pieces that were at best two bites each (most of us would have popped the entire piece in at once) came to $29.  I ate a few of those this weekend too. 

Talk about things not being worth it! Neither price or point value!

The next fund raising child that comes to the door and is one I choose to support is going to get cash. I'll spend less money, not be tempted by candy, popcorn, pizza kits or any other food item. Also no more wrapping paper that rips when you look at it, but I digress. 

I am down .4 pounds for a total of 37. My goal this week is to track everything. It truly is not difficult and slipping back into bad habits is not the direction I want to follow.

Onward and downward!

20th Weigh In

Monday is my meeting day but we were out of town. It is cold today (Tuesday) so I gave thought about what I would wear to go weigh in. Anyone on a weight loss journey probably feels the way I do. Either never weigh in wearing jeans or always wear them. Since I began this journey wearing shorts, I wasn't about to wear jeans today. Oh, the games we play...

I am happy to say that this still hasn't been a struggle for me, but I still have my worries. Everyone was here for dinner on Thursday, an unexpected but pleasant event. They opted to get chicken from a local chain called Chicken Shack. Their food is tasty, but the only thing not fried is the cole slaw. Truthfully, I discovered months ago that having both their chicken and broasted potatoes would lead to miserable indigestion for me and I had already begun avoiding their food. Whatever the WW points would have been, and they would have been difficult to figure, they weren't going to be worth it to me. While my son went to pick up the food, I made a lean beef hamburger and green beans for myself. It wasn't a hardship to do so, and without indigestion hours later, I was very happy with my choice.

Saturday was the day for two classes an hour from home. There is a Jimmy John's (a sandwich chain with locations in most of the states) nearby that delivers to the store where these classes are held. I have low point breakfasts on class days to allow for a 14 point lunch, the Big John sandwich which is made with roast beef. I expected to be home for dinner but that changed. Dinner was much later than I anticipated and I was very hungry. Flatbread pizza was served along with an antipasto salad. It wouldn't have mattered what the point values were, I needed to eat. Make that NEEDED....I told you I was hungry!

The following day I went out of town, somewhat prepared with food from home but I fell short with veggies. I ate a stale pack of Little Debbie Nutty Bars. Eight points and they were terrible! They weren't my favorite before and stale....Yuck!  

I went to WW not feeling at all sure of what the scale would read. Imagine my relief when I was down again, another 1.9 pounds for a total of 36.6 lost!

Onward and downward!

Weigh In 19: Slippery Slopes

A story has been on network news and social media about a guy who pulled a prank while proposing to his girlfriend at the Grand Canyon. I must be extremely old fashion as I don't see a prank and proposing belonging together except in the dictionary. He pretended to slip and to lose the ring box. I don't think actually doing this at the canyon was funny at all, but the story about slippery slopes is only meant to be a lead in to today's post.

I am down another .7 today for a total of 34.7 pounds. This is good, but my past week could have become a slippery slope. I made cookies to take to my knitting group. I left some home for hubby and grandson. Hubby didn't care for the maple cookies and grandson only had one during a short visit.

I didn't polish them off in one or two days as I could have before, but I also didn't attempt to figure out the point value. If I had one at someone else's house, I wouldn't have felt guilty. One cookie or almost any other item with an unknown point value isn't going to hurt...unless this becomes a habit.

For someone else, a slippery slope in their home might be salty snacks. I could go the rest of my life without being tempted by chips, pretzels or nuts. Popcorn, especially the smell of movie theater popcorn, does nothing for me. Actually, the smell of movie popcorn is very unpleasant to me. I know full well that ice cream can be dangerous for me. If I am serving myself regular ice cream, I measure it. I try to always have some form of WW or similar low point frozen treat in the freezer.

So what happened with the cookies? I didn't Love the maple cookies but the idea of cookies is still so darned appealing. I had one or two a day until they were gone. Good thing I only left 10-12 of them home. My slippery slope isn't just the cookies per day that I didn't count, it was the attitude toward tracking that slid into danger.

I use e-Tools and have access to my WW tracker on my PC, my iPhone and iPad.  It isn't a chore to go the site and enter something unless I want to make it one. I made dinner one day last week that just wasn't turning out well. It was a crock pot recipe that even wasn't done anywhere near the expected time. I was hungry at 6:00 and ate something else for dinner but didn't track it. And I ate another cookie. The whole next day I didn't use the tracker. I tend to eat one of a few combinations for breakfast or lunch. I told myself I would enter the meals (which is how I have some saved for even faster entry) later and carried the points around in my head. Except for those dang cookies that I ate. Again.

Apparently cookies are my gateway drug to bigger things!

Seriously, I am not beating myself up for this, but am aware that this could be a problem. I can honestly say I wasn't hungry when I ate any of the cookies. I ate them because ... well .... because they ARE (were) COOKIES.

Back to tracking and staying away from slopes this week. 

Onward and downward!

18th Weigh In

The discussion today was perfectionism. Bottom line: When you insist on perfection, you achieve nothing but frustration. I think my success this time around is because I'm not aiming for perfection, only improvement.

This weekend was the first time I used the e-tool Recipe Builder. I made Italian Sausage soup just as I always made it. The recipe didn't provide a number of servings so I had to measure the total quantity to gets figure out how many points per cup. This wasn't hard and the point total was better than I had guessed. I think it is time to start cooking again, but not every day. By cooking, I mean things that both of us will enjoy eating. I could easily continue eating the simple things that have worked for me, but I might get bored after a while. Also, variety is good, not just for the taste buds but for digestion too. Hubby has been ok with fixing something for himself on the nights I am having plain chicken or a low fat hamburger on a slimwich bun. He doesn't care to eat them and doesn't expect me to fix separate meals. I do sometimes, but not always.

The loss for the week was another 1.6 for a total of 34. 

Onward and downward!